Google+ exposed about 500,000 user accounts

Facebook is not the only one who got into a major data misuse situation in March – Google was covering up the breach which exposed data of half a million users. The incident became known only months later. Although the bug was fixed in March the data leak wasn’t announced.

Google+ social networking service is shutting down as users are transferring their data. The network will probably be limited to a business purpose.

The incident wasn’t reported as soon as there was allegedly no evidence of data misuse and information on which users were affected. The breach could facilitate the access to the information for third-party applications but Google can’t find out whether it happened or not due to not keeping logs of API use.

There could be another reason for a nondisclosure – unwillingness to attract attention of regulators and be thoroughly investigated.

Google ensures that users will be allowed to have a substantial control over their data and be aware of which information their Google accounts or Gmail might transmit to third-party applications.

Google may now have face loads of problems with compliance. The company should prove that they obtained consent from users to share their details. If there is any process a user wasn’t acquainted with and it concerns or affects personal data, Google will have to reveal every piece of knowledge they have about their system and cooperate assisting with a customer safety level analysis.

The company guarantees that the compromised details didn’t include texts or phone numbers admitting though that name fields, job information and emails occurred to be vulnerable.